2022/23 UEFA Youth League

[Juliusz]

Yesterday Zagłębie Lubin drew 0-0 at home vs Rukh Lviv and are out (0-1 on aggregate). Even an addition from first team didn't help. So embarrassing.

Why is it embarrassing?

You think that Ukrainian football is below Polish football?

Another elimination of Polish champion in first round of champions path. This time they played both matches at home, had a player from first team and in general this is one of the best youth academies in Poland, not a random team. Rukh are youth champions of Ukraine because they were allowed to play some matches in May, which allowed them to surpass Dynamo Kyiv (in a curtailed season anyway).

[amenina]

Matchday 4

Group A
Napoli 1-1 Ajax, Rangers 3-4 Liverpool

Group B
Atlético 1-2 Club Brugge, Leverkusen 1-3 Porto

Group C
Plzeň 3-3 Bayern, Barcelona 2-0 Inter

Group D
Tottenham 2-3 Frankfurt, Sporting CP 1-1 Marseille

Group E
Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 Salzburg, AC Milan 3-1 Chelsea

Group F
Shakhtar 0-3 Real Madrid, Celtic 0-2 Leipzig

Group G
Copenhagen 1-3 Man City, Dortmund 2-0 Sevilla

Group H
Maccabi Haifa 1-3 Juventus, Paris 2-3 Benfica

[amenina]

After 4 rounds, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester City are assured of top two finish.

[SimonB]

Matchday 4

Group A
Napoli 1-1 Ajax, Rangers 2-3 Liverpool

Liverpool won 4-3 at Rangers not 3-2. I don't normally follow this competition but I happened to view the last few minutes of that one not long ago.

[amenina]

Matchday 4

Group A
Napoli 1-1 Ajax, Rangers 2-3 Liverpool

Liverpool won 4-3 at Rangers not 3-2. I don't normally follow this competition but I happened to view the last few minutes of that one not long ago.

Thanks for the correction. UEFA put the wrong scores in their own summary article. (Note: they have also corrected the score)

https://www.uefa.com/uefayouthleague/ne ... -fixtures/

[Dragonite]

Qabala 1-5 Hajduk Split
As expected Hajduk Split advanced with two wins here. Winning twice, aggregate score 5-1, is exactly the same start compared to last season in round 1 against Shkendija. Qabala was "better" than last season, despite losing twice once again, at least this time the aggregate score was shorter and they scored one goal.

Shamrock Rovers 1-6 AZ Alkmaar
AZ Alkmaar advanced as expected, although last season at this stage they did it with two wins, aggregate score 11-0 vs Qabala, and this time they couldn't win in Ireland. Debutant Shamrock Rovers at least was better than last season's Irish team St. Patrick's, that was also eliminated in round 1 but losing twice.

Jelgava 0-4 MTK
MTK advanced with two wins as expected. It's the first time in their UYL history that they win two consecutive matches. Last season at this stage they eliminated Sparta Praha, winning the home match but then only getting a draw away. Debutant Jelgava was eliminated in round 1 just like all the previous Latvian participants.

Slavia Praha 4-5 Genk
Genk lost the first leg at home, but then recovered away and advanced as expected. Lots of red cards in both matches, in the first leg Slavia Praha and Genk had one red card each, and in the second leg Genk had one and Slavia Praha had three! All these four red cards in the second leg were during second half added time, which was almost like an "extra-time" since it lasted 13 minutes.

Pyunik 0-5 Nantes
As expected Nantes advanced with two wins here. Two wins, aggregate score 5-0, is exactly the same compared to Angers' start last season. Then Angers was eliminated in round 2, will the same happen to Nantes? As for Pyunik, their senior team may be thriving in the Conference League, but success with the youth team is much harder because they can't just import several foreigners.

Pobeda 4-5 Coleraine
Congratulations Coleraine!

I expected Pobeda to advance here because these teams are debutants but Coleraine is also from a debutant country. And yet Coleraine already did in just one attempt what Macedonian clubs were never able to do in several - win a match and progress from the first round. Vardar out in round 1 vs Salzburg in 2016 with two defeats, Shkendija out in round 1 vs Nitra, Dynamo Kyiv and Hajduk Split in 2017, 2019 and 2021 respectively without winning a single game, and now Pobeda here.

Apolonia 4-2 Astana
Congratulations Apolonia!

I expected Astana to advance here because Apolonia is a debutant from Albania and previous Albanian clubs never progressed from round 1 and never even won a match. Vllaznia lost twice against Zimbru in 2017 and twice against Astana in 2018, Shkendija Tirana lost twice against Sheriff in 2019, and in 2021 Akademia e Futibollit got one win and one draw against Septemvri.

Galatasaray 5-1 Csikszereda
Galatasaray advanced as expected. Csikszereda with a small improvement compared to last year, at least this time they didn't lose twice and they scored one goal. The 4-0 win in the second leg is the biggest win in Galatasaray's UYL history, above four 3-0 wins against Anderlecht, Astana twice and Schalke 04 in 2014, 2015 twice and 2018 respectively.

Omonoia 1-3 Crvena Zvezda
Crvena Zvezda advanced as expected. Omonoia's senior team is losing every EL game, and their youth team wasn't any different here. At least the senior team still has the possibility to recover. Last season Crvena Zvezda also won twice in round 1 and then was eliminated in round 2. Let's see if they can do better this time.

Slavia Sofia 2-10 Panathinaikos
Panathinaikos advanced as expected. Greek teams survive round 1 and Bulgarian teams don't. That was the "rule" until last season, when PAOK was eliminated by Zilina in round 1, and Septemvri eliminated Akademia e Futibollit and reached round 2. This season things are back to "normal". Perhaps this is the beginning of Panathinaikos' resurrection, it starts here with the youth team and eventually it will reach the senior team too.

Domzale 2-5 Young Boys
Congratulations Young Boys!

I expected Domzale to advance here because Young Boys never eliminated anyone in their UYL history and was in a winless streak of 8 UYL matches, while Domzale already progressed from round 1 once (2019 vs Viitorul). But I suppose that because most of Young Boys matches are in the group stage part and Domzale was never there, this creates a distortion and makes Young Boys look weaker and Domzale look stronger.

Trencin 5-2 Zalgiris
Trencin lost the first leg in Lithuania but then recovered at home and advanced as expected. Despite being eliminated once again in round 1 just like last season, this was still an improvement for Zalgiris, at least this time they won once while last season they lost twice. Now let's see if their senior team is also capable of winning in the Conference League.

Zaglebie 0-1 Rukh Lviv
Rukh Lviv advanced as expected. I was afraid that I could be overestimating Rukh Lviv because they're from Ukraine and Shakhtar and Dynamo Kyiv have good academies. It was possible that those two could be hoarding all the talents in the country and there would be nothing left for anyone else. Advancing one round against Zaglebie doesn't make them "talents" yet, let's see how much further they can get.

Racing Union 2-8 AIK
AIK advanced as expected. In their previous participation in 2016 AIK was eliminated by Rosenborg in round 1, this time they progressed from round 1. Racing Union wasn't much different from the previous participant from Luxembourg, Dudelange in 2017. They both lost twice with six goals difference, Dudelange 1-7 vs Sparta Praha.

Hibernian 2-2 Molde (5-4 PSO)
Congratulations Hibernian!

Molde has an unusual attraction for penalty shootouts in UYL. In 2017/2018 they eliminated UCD in round 1 in a penalty shootout, and then they were eliminated by Monaco in the playoff also in a penalty shootout. Now they were eliminated in a penalty shootout once again. Here they tried the "Krul" for the penalty shootout, replacing starter Lervik by sub Bygland, but it was useless since Bygland couldn't save a single shot from Hibernian.

Borac Banja Luka 0-5 Ashdod
Ashdod advanced as expected. Last season Bosnian participant Zvijezda also lost twice in round 1, but the aggregate score was shorter, 0-3 vs Trabzonspor. And Israeli participant last season, Maccabi Haifa, also won twice in round 1 by aggregate score 5-0, against Zalgiris. If Ashdod wins again in round 2 first leg they'll become the first Israeli team winning 3 consecutive matches in UYL history.

[amenina]

Second round ties (25/26 October & 1/2 November)
AZ Alkmaar vs Crvena zvezda
Hibernian vs Nantes
Young Boys vs AIK
Genk vs Coleraine
Panathinaikos vs Trenčín
Apolonia vs Hajduk Split
Galatasaray vs Ruh Lviv
Ashdod vs MTK Budapest

https://www.uefa.com/uefayouthleague/ne ... round-set/

All times CET

First legs

Tuesday 25 October
AZ Alkmaar vs Crvena zvezda (18:00)

Wednesday 26 October
Galatasatay vs Ruh Lviv (13:00)
Apolonia vs Hajduk Split (14:00)
Coleraine vs Genk (15:00)
Ashdod vs MTK Budapest (17:00)
Young Boys vs AIK (18:00)
Panathinaikos vs Trenčín (18:00)
Hibernian vs Nantes (20:00)

Second legs

Tuesday 1 November
Crvena zvezda vs AZ Alkmaar (18:00)

Wednesday 2 November
Ruh Lviv vs Galatasaray (14:00)
Genk vs Coleraine (15:00)
Hajduk Split vs Apolonia (15:00)
MTK Budapest vs Ashdod (16:00)
Trenčín vs Panathinaikos (18:00)
Nantes vs Hibernian (19:00)
AIK vs Young Boys (19:00)

[Dragonite]

UYL Domestic Path continues this week!

I expect the following teams to advance: AZ Alkmaar, Ruh Lviv, Hajduk Split, Genk, Ashdod, Young Boys, Trencin and Nantes.

[rpo.castro]

Benfica is out

[amenina]

Benfica is out

The defending UYL champions are out after they lost to Juventus last night. And losing to Maccabi Haifa at home on matchday 1 certainly didn’t help. So Chelsea remains the only back-to-back UYL champions, winning in 14/15 and 15/16.

It is quite difficult to defend a youth tournament. Players become over-age, and the best players are promoted to the senior teams. Last night in the UCL match, the first Benfica goalscorer, Antonio Silva, played in the UYL final last year, and on the bench (but did not play) was Henrique Araujo, who scored a hat-trick in last year’s final.

[Club-Mate]

Benfica is out

The defending UYL champions are out after they lost to Juventus last night. And losing to Maccabi Haifa at home on matchday 1 certainly didn’t help. So Chelsea remains the only back-to-back UYL champions, winning in 14/15 and 15/16.

It is quite difficult to defend a youth tournament. Players become over-age, and the best players are promoted to the senior teams. Last night in the UCL match, the first Benfica goalscorer, Antonio Silva, played in the UYL final last year, and on the bench (but did not play) was Henrique Araujo, who scored a hat-trick in last year’s final.

indeed the performance gap in YCL is much closer than in seniors thus much more surprises can happen. Moreover younger players are often not yet so constant in their performance so everything can happen. See last season when Salzburg beat Atletico in SF 5:0 but got crashed two days later in final against Benfica 0:6!
I was able to watch two matches live from RB U19 in Grödig against Dinamo and Chelsea yesterday. I want to say that Dinamo is the better team than Chelsea they even have a gem in their rows it's the left wing I think Rukavina is his name really strong maybe young Modric. From Salzburg team Karim Konate seems outstanding he scoared already 5 goals plus some assists. From Chelsea I liked CB Humphrey with great overview in the game and perfect positioning. Would not wonder if these players will play CL or at least in top league sooner or later.
Salzburg must not lose in Milan because Dinamo will likely beat Chelsea in London.

[amenina]

Benfica is out

The defending UYL champions are out after they lost to Juventus last night. And losing to Maccabi Haifa at home on matchday 1 certainly didn’t help. So Chelsea remains the only back-to-back UYL champions, winning in 14/15 and 15/16.

It is quite difficult to defend a youth tournament. Players become over-age, and the best players are promoted to the senior teams. Last night in the UCL match, the first Benfica goalscorer, Antonio Silva, played in the UYL final last year, and on the bench (but did not play) was Henrique Araujo, who scored a hat-trick in last year’s final.

indeed the performance gap in YCL is much closer than in seniors thus much more surprises can happen. Moreover younger players are often not yet so constant in their performance so everything can happen. See last season when Salzburg beat Atletico in SF 5:0 but got crashed two days later in final against Benfica 0:6!
I was able to watch two matches live from RB U19 in Grödig against Dinamo and Chelsea yesterday. I want to say that Dinamo is the better team than Chelsea they even have a gem in their rows it's the left wing I think Rukavina is his name really strong maybe young Modric. From Salzburg team Karim Konate seems outstanding he scoared already 5 goals plus some assists. From Chelsea I liked CB Humphrey with great overview in the game and perfect positioning. Would not wonder if these players will play CL or at least in top league sooner or later.
Salzburg must not lose in Milan because Dinamo will likely beat Chelsea in London.

Chelsea are arguably the most successful UYL team, with 2 titles (joint best with Barcelona), 4 final appearances (joint best with Benfica), 4 final four appearances (joint best with Barcelona, Benfica and Real Madrid). Yet they were absolutely terrible this year, eliminated with only 2 points from 5 matches. It seems the new American owner really wants to develop the club’s youth system, so we will see whether they will return to the final stage in the future.

[amenina]

Matchday 5

Group A
Napoli 2-3 Rangers, Ajax 3-1 Liverpool

Group B
Club Brugge 1-2 Porto, Atlético 4-0 Leverkusen

Group C
Inter 4-2 Plzeň, Barcelona 3-2 Bayern

Group D
Frankfurt 2-0 Marseille, Tottenham 1-2 Sporting CP

Group E
Dinamo Zagreb 1-2 AC Milan, Salzburg 5-1 Chelsea

Group F
Celtic 0-1 Shakhtar, Leipzig 2-3 Real Madrid

Group G
Sevilla 2-1 Copenhagen, Dortmund 3-3 Man City

Group H
Paris 3-1 Maccabi Haifa, Benfica 2-3 Juventus

[amenina]

The following teams are assured of advancing with one round to go:

Through to round of 16 as group winners: Barcelona (Group C), Real Madrid (Group F), Manchester City (Group G)

Through to play-offs as group runners-up: Inter (Group C), Shakhtar Donetsk (Group F)

Confirmed top two in group, position TBC: Liverpool, Ajax (Group A), Atlético, Porto (Group B), Sporting CP, Eintracht Frankfurt (Group D), AC Milan (Group E), Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus (Group H)

[amenina]

To be resolved in the last round:

Group A: Liverpool win the group over Ajax unless they lose and Ajax win.

Group B: Atletico win the group over Porto if they win or draw.

Group D: Sporting win the group over Frankfurt if they win or draw.

Group E: Salzburg win the group over Milan if they win. Otherwise, they finish second over Dinamo Zagreb unless they lose and Dinamo win.

Group G: Copenhagen finish second over Dortmund if they win or draw.

Group H: PSG win the group over Juventus if they win or draw.